Attack and Release
by Petrich0rr
Summary: When you're a 19 year old girl walking along the streets of Paris at night and someone grabs you from behind, it's usually safe to assume their intentions aren't pure... isn't it?


While Cosette was growing up, her father had ensured she suffer through years of self-defence classes and karate lessons so that she was strong and able to look after herself when she got older.

At heart, Cosette was a peaceful person, so she _hated _these lessons. It wasn't the physical strain or the fact that she got hot and sweaty that irked her, but the fact that she was learning how exactly she could inflict the most damage to another human being with her _own bare hands_. True, the strength that she built up made her feel empowered and independent, but she kept it curled up and concealed in the lean muscles of her arms and legs, hesitant and scared to ever really use it, just in case she ever seriously hurt someone.

However, one night when she was walking through the streets of Paris on her way to the Café Musain to meet up with her friends, she is attacked from behind.

Or rather, she _thought _she was being attacked from behind.

Usually she would have been walking to the Musain with Marius or Éponine, but this week Marius was sick and Éponine was at Gavroche's parents evening, so she was on her own and listening to her iPod, _On Top of the World _by Imagine Dragons filling her ears and making her less aware of her surroundings (an error on her part, she will admit).

But when you're a nineteen year old female walking alone down the back-streets of Paris at night and someone grabs you from behind, it's usually pretty certain that their intentions are not pure.

She feels a hand clamp down on her shoulder and, without even pausing to think, her lightning-fast reflexes kick in and she whips around to bring her elbow down on the face of her attacker, hearing a crunch of bones as skin collides with skin. She then tackles this person to the ground and straddles them around the waist, her thighs clamping down on their sides so they don't get up (however, judging by the way their head ricochets off the cobble-stoned pavement, they aren't going _anywhere_).

The adrenaline that had coursed through Cosette's veins and fueled her into reacting this way was beginning to ebb away and her mind was beginning to clear. Her heart was hammering wildly in her chest and she was shaking violently, her chest heaving as she desperately drew air into her lungs.

Slowly, she peered at the face of her attacker.

It was _Courfeyrac. _

"Shit!" She cried, jumping off him. He was unresponsive and there was blood pouring from his nose and staining his face, "Shit shit shit shit shit _shit!_"

Panicking, she looked around the street they were in to see if there was some sort of magical solution to what had happened. But the street was devoid of any signs of life - it was little more than an alley, really - so there was no help to be found.

She knelt carefully on the ground and checked him for signs of life just in case she had accidentally _killed _him (oh god, what if she had killed him?!). Putting her fingers to his neck, she was relieved when she felt his pulse beating steadily beneath her touch.

Then, gently as she could she probed his head with her fingers for signs of bleeding or , she found nothing but a large lump on the back of his head from when it had violently collided with the ground. When she was suitably convinced that his death was not imminent, Cosette lifted his head as gently as she could to rest it on her bent legs and fished in her handbag for her phone.

Who would be best to call in this situation? At any other time, her first thought would be Marius - but he was currently curled up in bed watching Gilmore Girl re-runs, so that was out. She couldn't drag Eponine away from Gavroche's school, it was past 10pm so Grantaire would be uproariously drunk, Enjolras would be in the middle of debating Thatcherism with Combeferre and Joly (although the former British Prime Minister had died two days ago, Enjolras _still _hadn't run out of things to say about her. 99.9% of it was negative).

After thirty seconds of silent debate, she decided she would call Combeferre, as he was the calmest and most level-headed of all the Amis, and therefore _brilliant _in crisis such as these.

Dialling his number, he picked up within three rings, "Cosette?"

"_Is that Cosette?" _She heard Grantaire say in the background, "_Is she okay?_"

"Give me a chance to speak to her!" Combeferre said exasperatedly, "Hey Cosette, sorry. Where are you? We were beginning to get worried."

"Oh Combeferre, I knocked out Courfeyrac!" She cried, biting her lip and looking down at the boy in her lap, who was beginning to stir with a groan.

"What, you what?"

"I was walking down the road and I felt someone grab me from behind and I got scared so I elbowed him in the face and tackled him and now he's unconscious and his nose is bleeding!"

"I err… Jesus Cosette, how did you manage that?" Combeferre laughed incredulously.

"It's not funny! I think I've really hurt him!"

"No yes of course," Combeferre cleared his throat, "Where are you? Do you want me to come pick you up?"

"Not far, near the wine shop on Rue des Mathurins-Saint-Jacques. I don't know what state Courf's in, we might have to take him to the ATU*."

"Okay, stay there - I'll only be a few minutes."

"Thank you so much Combeferre," Cosette said earnestly, "I didn't mean to hit him so hard."

"Don't worry about it, he'll be fine. See you in a few."

When Combeferre rang off, Cosette turned her attention to Courfeyrac - who was blinking up at her groggily while pinching the bridge of his nose to try and stop the flow of blood.

"I think ib dead," he moaned pitifully, his voice dead, "You've killed be."

"Courf I'm so so so so so so sorry!"

"You attacked be! I was only trying to get your attention so we could walk together! Mon Dieu Cosette, I didn't know you were the karate kid," his voice was hoarse.

"I got scared! I'm really sorry-"

"If you've broken by nose, I will hate you forever."

"Sor-"

"Don't apologise, just know that if you have permanently disfigured by face I will eat everything you love. Starting with Barius."

"You'll _eat _Marius?!" She asked incredulously.

"I'll eat Barius," Courfeyrac resolved.

* * *

***ATU is the french version of A&E or ER in case you weren't aware :)**


End file.
